“And here on your right is the tower of Icari. It had been built during the late 1600s.” She let the tourist guide’s voice fade in the background. She glanced around and decided to look through a few shops.

She went back to the hotel last night to find Jessica packing her bags and crying. She quickly went over and enveloped her in her arms. “I’m sorry,” she repeated over and over again.

“It isn’t your fault,” Jessica said amidst tears. “I just didn’t expect to find out the day before my wedding. I knew he was still hung over you.” That night, she cried and cried until she succumbed to sleep. Yoona was there the whole time, trying her best to comfort her best friend even if she knew she was the cause of all of this.

That morning, Jessica set out to go back to Kaiza. She persuaded Yoona to stay and enjoy her vacation. In truth, Jessica just wanted to be alone.

And so that morning, Yoona changed hotels in order to avoid seeing Heechul and tried to tour the city on her own. Along the way, she managed to catch a college friend who was working as a tour guide. She willingly let Yoona tag along the group she was handling.

After satisfying herself that she’d just about tasted all the pastries in that street, Yoona decided to go back to the group she was tagging along to. She hurried over to the plaza to find the tour and their bus gone. She was in a part in Leruthia that she wasn’t familiar with, having gone there only once.

She tried looking for them on foot at first but then realized that they’ve probably gone off to the next destination which was a few miles from here. She tried hailing a cab to no avail.

“Hey miss, you lost?” said a voice from beside her. She turned to find three men looking at her menacingly.

“No. I’m just looking for somebody,” she said, walking away from them. She did her best to think up of all the self-defense moves she’d learned a few years back.

“You seem kind of lost to us,” one of the men said.

She glanced back to see them following her. She tried to quicken her pace but the crowd was preventing her from doing so. The whole plaza was stuffed and she had no idea where she was going.

“We can help you.” She yelped when a hand circled her arm. Soon, she found herself being dragged to an alley.

The man pushed her to the wall making her whimper. She couldn’t seem to muster the strength to scream. Instead, she stood there, her back to the wall, watching as the three went nearer to her. She closed her eyes, hoping that somebody would come and help her.

“We don’t need money. I’m sure your body can be payment-“ the man hadn’t had the chance to finish his words. She opened her eyes to the sounds of punching and cursing. She was shocked to find the two men already down on the floor. She looked up to the see another striding towards her. She placed her purse in front of her, trying to block off her attacker.

“Are you alright?” She heard the familiar voice stop in front of her. She slowly lowered her purse to find Heechul towering over her.

She was about to thank him when a fist came from beside them and landed on his face. He was caught unaware and was immediately knocked to the ground.

 “Bastard.” Yoona looked up to see Donghae seething a few feet away from her. He turned and looked at her. Then without a word, grabbed her wrist and pulled her out from the alley.

“Hey wait! What are you doing?” she tried to free herself from his grasp. When he finally let go, they were in front of a cafe. She looked at him and saw that his lip was bleeding. “Oh god, what happened to you?”

“Your boyfriend punched me to get to you first,” he said grimly.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she sighed. Donghae merely stared at her and made no move to attend to his lip. She pulled out her handkerchief and stepped towards him. She wanted to wipe it for him but decided against it. “Here. It’s bleeding.”

Donghae looked at the handkerchief as if it was something unacceptable. He scoffed and brought a hand up to touch his wound. He flinched and cursed from the pain. He looked at Yoona to find her looking at him worriedly. The handkerchief poised in the air, as if she wanted to attend to his wounds herself.

Yoona lowered her hand and avoided his gaze. “Why’d you pull me out? Heechul was still there.”

“The men were slowly regaining their senses and were standing up. I reckon you wouldn’t want to be there when things get nasty.”

“Oh. Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Want some coffee?” she heard him say. When she looked back at him, he was wearing his signature smile. It used to make her do anything he says; she didn’t know it still had the same effect.

“So, where’s Jess?” he asked, taking a sip from his coffee, wincing as the cup hit his wound.

Yoona looked at Donghae, her heart beating fast. He was hurt and she couldn’t do a thing about it. “She went back to Kaiza.”

“So you really picked him over her?”

She didn’t know what, but something in his face made her want to tell him that he hadn’t been replaced. “No, I didn’t. He isn’t worth it.” You were the only one worthy of me risking my friendship with Jess, she thought.

“So what are you both doing here together?”

“We aren’t together. I told him to get lost. I was just touring around the city. I have no idea why he’s following me.”

Donghae looked at him strangely. He tensed when he looked over her shoulder. She turned around to see Heechul walking angrily towards them. She stood up just in time to get in between him and Donghae, who was already standing up.

“You bastard,” Heechul said, making a move to punch Donghae on the face. She didn’t have any idea why she shielded Donghae with her body, but she did. She opened her eyes to see Heechul looking at her sadly and Donghae stepping up in front of her.

Heechul’s fist was still in the air but he had let go of the idea of punching the man Yoona was with. When Yoona stepped in between them, intercepting his punch, he immediately felt defeated. “Yoona, where’s Jess?” he asked instead. He looked pointedly at the man standing in front of Yoona and tensed. He was taller but the man in front of him was clearly more built.

Yoona finally found her voice and said, “She went home.” He took one last look at Yoona and turned around to go.

Donghae turned to see Yoona shaking. “What the hell? Were you planning to get punched in the face?”

“I wasn’t. I- It- Hee-” she stuttered. She really had no idea what went through her head. The only thing she knew was that she wouldn’t take it if he got hurt because of her again.

“Alright alright. Calm down,” he said, wanting to stop her from shaking. He knew that she was scared, he just didn’t know why. When he saw that she was still shaking, he stepped closer and enveloped her in his arms. “It’s alright. No more fights,” he shushed. Immediately, her shaking stopped. He can feel her heart beating furiously in her chest. And although he knew that he had to let go, he just can’t find the will to. The love of his life was in his arms, literally.

“Thank you. I- I’m alright now,” he heard her say. He stepped back and let her go.

“I didn’t know that still works,” he smirked. She knew he was talking about the hug. Back then, whenever she got scared, all it took was a hug to calm her down.

She blushed when she remembered the feel of his arms around her. She saw him taking her purse from her seat.

“What are you doing?” she asked while trying to calm her heart.

“Come on. You said you were touring, right? You looked lost. And if you want to see the beauties of the city, then I guess we’d have to hurry up,” he smiled.

“We? Hurry up?” Yoona was starting to realize what Donghae had said and was hoping that she just wasn’t misunderstanding him.

“Yeah. Why? I’m a pretty cheap tour guide. I don’t really charge my costumers. Just the smile on your face would be payment enough,” he smirked and his face shone like the sun.

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